Memories of Titanic unite ancestors from Valley a century later

Two Lehigh Valley families whose ancestors were aboard the ship meet a century later.

April 16, 2012|By Milton D. Carrero, Of The Morning Call

Fate and the Titanic brought two Lehigh Valley families together, and it took 100 years for the connection to become clear.

Peter Anewalt and Barbara Thayer are both proud of their ancestors' involvement as passengers of the legendary White Star liner. Thayer's husband was the son of John B. Thayer III, a man who not only survived the odyssey of the "unsinkable" vessel's demise, but who wrote a detailed account of his experiences on April 14 and 15, 1912.

The son of a Pennsylvania Railroad executive, Thayer was only 17 when he was forced to make a desperate jump from the sinking ship. He saw his father die before seeking refuge on an overturned lifeboat, where he clung to life for hours before he and more than 700 others were rescued by the SS Carpathia.

Anewalt's great-great-grandfather, Charles M. Hays, who was the president of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, had boarded the New York-bound craft in England with his wife, Clara. With them was their daughter, Orian, and her new husband, Thornton Davidson. Orian was wearing a three-diamond ring. The women survived, and the ring was recovered. The men did not live to tell their tales.

But their stories were not lost. On Sunday, relatives from both families gathered at Barbara Thayer's home in Bethlehem to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic. Anewalt, who lives in Fogelsville, had not met anyone in the Thayer's family until a few days ago when the widow contacted him to invite his family to her home.

She had learned through a common acquaintance that the Anewalts' ancestors also had ties to Titanic.

Anewalt brought his memorabilia, which the matriarchs in his family had passed down from generation to generation. Among the items was an English coin that was found on his great-great grandfather's body 10 days after the shipwreck. Thayer had a copy of John B. Thayer's book, "The Sinking of the S.S. Titanic," published in Philadelphia in December 1940.

Each shared stories and they discovered that both railroad tycoons owned homes in Cushing Island in Portland, Maine, at the turn of the 20th century. It was a remarkable coincidence, but it would not be the only one.

Orian's wedding ring had been taken apart, and the diamonds were distributed among the great-grandchildren. Anewalt inherited one of them, and it now adorns his wife's hand.

A closer look into Thayer's book revealed that both ancestors had spent quality time at the luxurious liner.

"Sunday, April 14th, dawned bright and clear," Thayer wrote. "I spent most of that day walking around the decks with my mother and father. We had short chats with many of the other promenaders, among whom I particularly remember J. Bruce Ismay, Thomas Andrews and Charles M. Hays, who was the president of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada With all of whom we spent quite a lot of time."